1. Technical Field
The following description relates to a network management system.
2. Related Art
It is necessary for two or more terminal devices being interconnected via a network, or sharing a peripheral electronics device such as a printing device (printer) to configure management settings such as network protocol settings (e.g., IP address settings for mutual identification on the network), user registration settings, and access condition settings for each of the terminal devices and peripheral electronics device. For example, such a management setting process is performed using dedicated management software (a management tool) different from application software applied for using functions of the peripheral electronics device, when the peripheral electronics device is connected to the network.
The management setting process is generally performed in a terminal device dedicated for an administrator (so-called management server). However, the management setting process can be executed even in another terminal device, when the management tool is installed therein. In general, a user registered as a network administrator is given an authority to execute the management setting process, and is allowed to access the network and perform the management setting process in a unified manner by inputting an administrator ID and/or a password.
However, when the number of the terminal devices or the peripheral electronics devices increases and the settings to be managed are thereby more complicated, two or more administrators may be registered, and each of them may be given the authority to execute the management setting process. In such a case, when the different administrators separately change the management settings, significant changes of the management settings configured earlier might be updated with setting changes configured later, or might be deleted. There is disclosed as a technology to solve this problem in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HE12-12334 an access control method in which an access level is set for each of the two or more administrators, and a setting change request for changing the management settings configured by another administrator of a higher access level, issued from an administrator of a lower access level, is rejected.